ONE EXPLANATION FOR LACKLUSTER BLOCKBUSTERS

"In Formal Theories of Mass Behaviour, William McPhee notes that a disproportionate share of the audience for a hit is made up of people who consume few products of that type. A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it."